


*looks directly into the camera* American Vandal Season Two, Now streaming on Netflix

by iamnotacreative



Category: American Vandal (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Sam Ecklund, Canon Compliant, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Peter Maldonado is Ace, You can't change my mind, oh god what a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:40:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25982986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamnotacreative/pseuds/iamnotacreative
Summary: Netflix wants to put them through more press training because they’re two seasons in and starting to get noticed in real life. So Sam and Peter talk about the things that might (probably won't) come out. They thought they knew everything about each other but well, they're awkward fucks and they both know it.
Relationships: Peter Maldonado/Dylan Maxwell, Sam Ecklund/Peter Maldonado
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37





	*looks directly into the camera* American Vandal Season Two, Now streaming on Netflix

Peter slides the key to their hotel room door, which responds with a beep and green light. He’s never been happier to enter a hotel room. Sam is behind him, his attention three doors to their left. 

“Okay, thanks Kathleen,” he calls in his polite voice. “Good night.”

“Good night, boys,” Kathleen says back, disappearing into her room. 

Sam follows Peter into the room, and before the door can even shut behind him he falls face first into his pillow and groans loudly into it. 

“Ugghhhh. I hate this.” 

“Yeah I do too, but we can’t not do it. You heard what Kathleen said,” Peter doesn’t pay him much mind, working on untying his shoelaces so he can kick off his shoes as quickly as possible.

Sam turns his head out of his pillow so he can breathe and pouts at Peter. “Yeah yeah press training is important so we never accidentally out anything about our lives or spoilers or whatever. But we went through this already!”

“Yeah when we barely put out the first season and nobody knew who we were yet.”

“We did some after that too! We met Trevor Noah!”

“True. That was awesome.”

“And it’s not like we’re getting recognized that much in the street.”

“You’re not?”

“I mean… I am, but like, not excessively.”

Peter rolls his eyes and lies on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. “I don’t want to do it either but we have to. And it’s not like it’s terribly difficult stuff. Also you talk a lot so maybe it’ll get you to shut up every once in a while.”

Sam shoots up onto his elbows and gapes at him. He can see Peter’s smirk even though he won’t turn to look at him. “Fucking rude.” 

“Anyway. It’s nice to be less suspicious changing the subject when there's something you don’t want to talk about.”

“What could they get out of us, honestly. We left our whole awkward lives in those docs.” 

“True.” Peter rolls his head in Sam’s direction. “I mean there’s gotta be something you don’t want to talk about.”

Sam thinks about it for a moment, then shrugs. “I mean I’d rather not talk about the whole Gabi thing but it’s gonna come up.”

”And I’d rather not talk about the accusation that my one true passion is cock, as you so gracefully put it.” 

They squint their eyes in a slight glare at each other for a second, then let it go. They’ve been through this argument too many times. They’re over it. 

Suddenly, Sam flips onto his back and wiggles so that his head and shoulder are hanging off the bed and looks Peter dead in the eye. 

“Alright let’s tell each other secrets about ourselves.”

Peter’s confusion is instantly overtaken by understanding and the urge to roll his eyes. “Oh my god.”

“I’m gonna go first,” Sam continues as if Peter didn‘t say anything. “I. Hate you.”

“I love that vine but I hate you,” Peter shakes his head. 

“Aww same, asshole,” Sam says fondly. 

“I don’t know, I feel like I don’t really have any secrets from you.”

“Oh come on,” Sam whines, still upside-down but now with his arms hanging too so that he’s starting to slide off the bed. “You gotta have something. At least one thing I don’t know.”

Peter snaps his attention from the ceiling back to Sam. “Why? How many secrets do you have from me?”

Sam shrugs, which makes him slide a little further toward the floor. “Not secrets, per se, but just things I haven’t told you cause they never came up. Unimportant things.”

Peter sits up to sit cross legged. “Like what?”

Sam thinks about this for a second. “I accidentally killed my sister’s fish once.”

Peter blinks at him. “I don’t think the press is going to ask about that.”

“Yeah but I felt really bad about it. Still do apparently? I thought it was dead, she was away and I was supposed to take care of it. I dumped it in the toilet and flushed it and it started swimming. Like actually swimming while it was being sucked down I felt so horrible. I watched Finding Nemo and their goal was to get flushed so they could get back to the ocean and that made me feel better but still.” By this point Sam’s head is almost on the ground, his coiffed hair starting to smush. Peter doesn’t know what to say about that, so he doesn’t say anything. 

After a moment of staring at the bottom of Peter’s bed, Sam’s head hits the floor and he snaps out of his reverie. He tries to get up, but winds up pulling the rest of his body to the floor. With a groan, Sam gets up and drops back on his bed, sitting to face Peter. 

“Okay your turn.”

“I- what?”

“Tell me a secret so I stop thinking about my sister’s poor fish that I accidentally murdered.”

“Is that what we’re doing now? Cause I don’t want to. “

“Oh come on! You heard what Kathy said. People are gonna start digging into our lives now apparently.”

“I don’t think for dead fish.”

“Peter tell me something please I keep seeing the fish desperately swimming flashing through my eyes.”

“That’s a weird way to phrase that.”

“Peter! Come on, dead fish!” To further his point, Sam puts his hands together and makes fish motions.

“Um?” Sam thinks Peter is thinking harder than he needs to. “I used to watch horror films when I was really young, like too young without my mom knowing and there was always a killer in the shower and I got so scared every time I went to the bathroom I would check the shower first for a straight year.”

Sam nods knowingly. “That’s so you.”

“Thanks.”

“I got scared of a movie when I was little and there were branches in the window that looked like hands and I slept in my sister’s bed for two weeks.”

“That’s fair,” Peter agrees. “I actually don’t hate the rom coms you make me watch.”

“That’s not a secret I knew that already,” Sam reaches in the nightstand where he left a bag of M&Ms. “And I don’t hate the super indie low budget flicks you show me that wind up being like soft core porn.”

Peter grabs an M&M from the bag and throws it at him. “Not all of them!”

“Some of them! The ones that don’t aren’t bad though.”

Peter glares. “I am aware.”

“Some of them are super depressing though and I need some feel good rom com to balance me out.” Sam pops the M&M Peter threw at him in his mouth and grins at him. 

Peter shrugs. ”Yeah fair enough I guess.”

Sam continues eating M&Ms by throwing them up and catching them in his mouth.”I ate a dog treat by accident once cause it looked like a regular cookie and it didn’t really taste bad so I ate the whole thing. Plus I felt like I had to commit to it.”

“Sounds about right.” Sam shrugs nonchalant, like he doesn’t regret it in the slightest. “I like baking. I like that there’s a set recipe that’s exact. Like you can’t really improvise with it and it feels like I’m actually getting something done. It’s kind of relaxing.”

“Uhh have you ever seen a baking show? I’ve shown you Nailed It right?”

“Yes you have. I’m not great at it but I’m not that bad. Plus that time crunch is crazy! Those are some intense decorations in not a lot of time. I just don’t decorate mine.”

“Hang on a second,” Sam tilts his head in sudden accusation. “Why have I not had any of your baking before?”

“You have. Brownies, muffins, cookies, scones.”

“I thought you said your mom made those.”

“I never said who made them, you just assumed it was my mom.”

Sam considers this for a moment. “Huh. Ok fair enough I guess. I love conspiracy theories. Not like I believe in them but I like looking into them and reading the whole ridiculous thing.”

Peter gives him a look. “That one’s not a secret you’ve shown me some before. And by some I mean a bunch.”

“They’re interesting!” Sam protests. “People are wild and I love it! Remember some of the theories about the dicks? Those were so great I can’t wait to see what we get for the poop crimes.”

“I don’t think they would be conspiracies, since we actually fully solved the case this time.”

“That would never stop a true conspiracy theorist, Peter, and you should know that,” Sam points at him with an M&M in between his fingers. “Shame on you.”

Peter rolls his eyes but takes his point. 

“I actually tried the way that Kevin drinks his tea and he’s right. It tastes better.”

Sam gapes at him. “Wow. Wow wow.”

“What!” Peter says defensively. “I had to know!”

“I mean actually, that’s not surprising,” Sam continues, ignoring him. “I have been kind of curious but not curious enough to find out.”

“You don’t even drink tea, Sam.”

“Okay but I could!”

“Will you?”

Sam frowns. “No.”

Peter levels him with a knowing look that says  _ ‘exactly.’ _

Sam pouts and crumbles his now empty wrapper. He leans to put it in the trash can under the nightstand and winds up just laying back on the bed. He pointedly doesn’t look at Peter.

“Gabi made me sign up for tinder. I never go on it but sometimes I get notifications and they stress me out.”

Peter doesn’t say anything but Sam knows his face probably looks like  _??? _ so he stays silent. 

Eventually Peter responds. “Can I see your profile?”

Sam’s head snaps back to Peter. “Absolutely not.”

“Please!”

Sam is absolutely scandalized. “No! I literally haven’t used it since she downloaded it.”

Peter looks equally scandalized. “Why not??”

“I don’t know because it’s weird?”

“How is it weird it's just a dating app?”

Peter notices his fingers as the question comes out of his mouth. They twitch slightly. Sam tries to resist it and folds his hands together. Peter knows his signs of nervousness. One of many. So he takes some pressure off of him. Staying silent, he leans back and mirrors Sam’s position on his own bed: on his back, hands together on his stomach, but instead of staring at the ceiling he closes his eyes and gives Sam space to say what he wants.

It takes a moment, but Sam eventually speaks. 

“The last time I even thought about Tinder was in Washington. I debated going on it just to see if I would match with someone- with... with Demarcus. But I talked myself out of it.”

Peter opens his eyes. He turns his head to look at Sam, who is still looking up at the ceiling. He’s shocked but he doesn’t let it show. 

“You had a crush on Demarcus?” Peter says, careful not to sound too… anything. 

Sam shoots up. “Briefly. Very very briefly. Like extremely briefly. Before we, you know, met him and knew him and stuff. It wasn’t even a crush really it was a kind of infatuation reputation…. thing…” Sam trails off. He had started off straight-backed and defensive, but weakened as his sentence did. 

Peter puts his hands up in defense and sits up too. “Hey I’m not judging you. God knows I’ve had worse.”

Confusion overtakes Sam’s face and Peter’s goes white. Fuck. Shouldn't have said that. 

“Oh have you?” Sam asks, but it doesn’t really sound like a question. 

“Uhh…” Peter looks at everything but Sam. The lamp, Sam’s pillow, the armchair in the corner that has the sweater Sam was wearing yesterday laying on it, the door. He looks like he wants to run. 

“Pete come on I just told you I had the most embarrassing crush on the most embarrassing dude. You can’t just leave me hanging like that.”

Clearly Peter and Sam have different tactics when trying to get each other to admit stressful things. 

Sam watches Peter’s thinking face start to go red. His chest starts beating harder as he waits expectantly. 

“I… had a crush on Christa?”

Sam deadpans. “Are you asking me or telling me?” Peter shifts uncomfortably. “Try again.”

Peter groans and puts his face in his hands, knowing he’s not going to be able to get out of this. 

“Oh god.” Peter takes a few deep breaths which are muffled by his hands and most definitely fogging up his glasses. “Mrndillanmadoutnce.”

Sam leans forward trying to make out the mumble that only made it out as one word but he was pretty sure was a full sentence. “Didn’t quite catch that.”

“Uuughhh,” Peter whines and throws his head back, still not looking at Sam, who recoils a little in surprise. He takes a deep breath with his head still hanging. “Me and Dylan made out once.”

Sam blinks. “Excuse me?”

Peter drops onto his back with his arms splayed out on either side of him. “Don’t make me say it again.”

“No but like legitimately, cause something’s not, uh,” Sam shakes his head and points to his forehead. “Something’s not processing.”

Peter groans and throws his arms over his eyes. He takes another breath. “Remember when I blew up at him? Outside his house when he wouldn’t let me in? It was pouring rain and Dylan wouldn’t even come to the door so I went to the back and yelled at him through the glass door. I was so angry at him. I really thought that was it. That the whole time he was lying to me again after all we did for him. It felt so damning.”

Of course Sam remembered. It was an emotional day. Seeing Peter go off like that was something he’d never seen before, though a lot of that investigation was filled with firsts. 

“Afterwards I stormed away. I was so mad. I didn’t even care about the rain. I told you to get the camera some place dry.”

“Yeah. I did. And I came back and you were halfway down the block. I tried to pick you up and you yelled at me to give you space. I’d never seen you like that.”

“I’d never felt like that, to be honest. I felt crushed.” Peter takes another breath. “You had to get home and I needed to cool off. And I guess Dylan had a change of heart because he ran after me out there to yell at me to my face instead of through a door.”

Sam’s face is still filled with confusion, eyes stuck on Peter’s mouth forming the words because he can’t believe what he’s hearing. Peter’s chest rises and falls with another deep breath. 

“And I don’t think either one of us meant for it to happen. But we were yelling at each other in the pouring rain, and I was angry, and he was angry, and we got up in each other’s faces and we- I don’t- we just... started making out. I don’t even know who started it. There was so much rage and energy radiating between us and it just… it just happened.”

Sam’s jaw is about on the floor at this point. He has no words. He doesn’t even know what words would say or sound like or be comprehensible at this moment. Peter’s arms finally leave his face, and he’s looking at the ceiling again. He peeks a look at Sam’s reaction and immediately regrets it. 

“It was only for a second though I swear. Like as soon as we realized what was happening we jumped apart and he like, ran away basically. We never talked about it.”

Peter sits up as Sam tries to stutter out a response. 

“Wh- I- you- he- uh-” Sam shakes his head trying to clear his thoughts. The only one that sticks in his brain shoots out of his mouth. “Do you like, like him?”

“No!” Peter blurts, almost like he’s horrified at the thought. “God no. That’s not… we obviously got over it and all that, but by literally not acknowledging it in the slightest. It was really weird for a while.”

“I can’t believe I never knew about this.”

“I’m pretty sure no one knows except you now.”

“Still!” Sam objects. “I’m your best friend and that was almost two years ago!”

“It’s also something I never really wanted to think about again.”

Sam reels and decides to take a different approach. He wiggles his eyebrows. “Did you like it?” he sings.

Peter lets out a dry laugh that blesses both their ear drums. “Shut up, we’re done with this topic. It’s your turn.”

“But I don’t want to be done with this topic!” Sam whines.

“Your turn!” Peter says louder. Sam pouts. “And it’s gotta come deep cause that was humiliating.”

“I’m gonna tell Dylan you said that.”

“You’re not allowed to speak to Dylan ever again.”

Sam scoffs. “Wow, possessive much?”

Peter points at him. “Sam, on my life if you ever speak of this to anyone, I will end you.”

Sam putting his hands up says surrender, but the look on his face holds nothing but mischief. Peter lowers his finger anyway. 

“Come on, then. What’s your next secret so I know what to get you back for if you ever do tell anyone.”

Sam considers for a moment. “I don’t think I can top that, to be honest. Demarcus was probably my biggest one.”

“Oh come on, no way,” Peter protests. “That wasn’t even that bad! Everyone at that school had a crush on Demarcus!”

“It felt big to me!” Sam suddenly sobers again. “It was the first time I was really like, whoa. I’m really a whole ass bisexual.”

Peter scrunches his eyebrows. “I thought you knew you were bi. You came out to me like four years ago.”

“Okay yeah but like,” Sam shrugs. “I never really  _ liked _ a guy before meeting them and you know,  _ knowing _ him. I was always like, yeah he’s good looking, yeah he’s got a great personality. But like I’ve never really been serious enough to almost confront Tinder about it. I’ve got a habit of only falling for people I already know.”

Peter nods. “I get that. I mean, I’m ace as hell but, yeah. I get that.”

“Oh yeah? Did you accidentally fall for your best friend?” It blurts out of Sam’s mouth before he can think about it, and before he even finishes the sentence he slaps his hand across his mouth. His eyes are so wide Peter thinks they might pop out of their sockets. 

“I knew it!” Peter exclaims with an accusing finger and a grin on his face. “You  _ do _ like Gabi!”

Sam’s heart drops and flutters at the same time. His body feels heavy, but he tries to play it off. “Liked! Past tense! I was over it before that dumb video! Years ago!”

“I don’t believe you,” Peter shakes his head. 

“I liked her before my bisexual crisis!” Sam tries. “I swear! Honestly I think I liked her because I didn’t know what it was supposed to feel like? To have a crush on someone? But now I do! She’s like my sister bro I swear. I love her like my sister.”

Peter squints at him but lets it go. “Alright alright I believe you. You don’t like Gabi.”

Sam sighs heavily. “Thank you. God convincing you of things is exhausting.”

“Hey!”

Sam levels him and points. “Truth.”

Peter rolls his eyes. “Whatever. When was your bi crisis anyway?”

“Uh, I don’t know?” Sam adjusts to sit cross legged. “Middle school? Freshman year? It was kind of an ongoing crisis that felt like my entire life.”

Peter snorts a laugh.

“What?” Sam objects. “Can you pinpoint when you had an ace crisis?”

“It wasn’t really a crisis,” Peter shrugs. “It was more like an ‘oh..’ moment.”

Sam scoffs. “Unfair.”

Peter smiles and looks down. He readjusts to sit cross legged as well, subconsciously copying Sam. Then, very softly, Peter continues. “I did have a gay crisis for a hot second though.”

“What?” Sam snaps. “You did?”

“I mean,” Peter continues a little louder, but not very. “Not a gay crisis, per se. Kind of just a… not-ace crisis. Kind of.” He shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“When was this?”

“Uh...” Peter grimaces. “In Bellevue.”

“Oh my god,” Sam whispers in a voice that he makes sure sounds like he’s teasing. “Did you have a crush on Demarcus too?”

Peter’s jaw drops, scandalized. He grabs his pillow and swings it at Sam, who laughs but doesn’t block it. “No!”

Sam just laughs. “You just said everyone at that school had a crush on Demarcus!”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“How was I supposed to know that?” Sam’s laughter fades, and Peter watches his expression change to one of realization. “Oh my god was it Kevin?”

Peter’s jaw drops and he smacks him with the pillow again. Sam is cackling as Peter hits him again and again and again. Peter’s laughing too, but Sam’s laughing so hard he doesn’t even have the strength to defend himself, he’s just swinging his arm in the general direction of the pillow. 

“You’re-”  _ *hit* _ “so-”  _ *hit*  _ “gross!”  _ *hit* _

When Peter stops hitting him, Sam gulps down some air to try and get him to stop laughing, wiping a tear from his eye. 

“Alright then, who was it.”

Peter shakes his head fondly, smile still on his face. “It was you, you idiot.”

Sam, still coming down from his laughing fit, shakes his head in confusion. “Me?”

Peter just nods. 

“I gave you a non-ace crisis,” Sam says slowly in disbelief. “In Bellevue.”

“Yeah,” Peter shrugs. It weirdly felt... easy this way, and kind of natural. He wasn’t really planning on ever telling him, but the moment feels right and, well he didn’t think he’d ever get a better chance. It doesn’t feel like confessing something he’s been hiding, it just feels like talking to Sam. “When we were living together in Chloe’s guest house.”

“Seriously?”

Peter shrugs again and looks down at his socks. “I mean, that’s when it kind of started hitting me, I guess. I think I kind of was feeling… something before that. I don’t know how long but, living with you was something different. It felt so different from being friends with you and, I don’t know. I’ve never had a crush on anyone so I don’t know what to compare it to.”

Sam says nothing so he continues. 

“I realized… I think the voice in the back of my head that's supposed to be my conscience sounds like you. Which honestly makes no sense because you’re one of the most impulsive people I know. Right behind the Wayback Boys.” Sam snorts, and he grins at the sound. Out of a sudden burst of nervousness he starts picking at a thread on the comforter. “Maybe not exactly like you, but it reminds me of you. Which is so weird.”

The thread pulls out of the comforter a little and Peter kind of feels bad about it, but not bad enough to stop fidgeting. 

“And going there with you, and being there, and the doc and everything, I kind of realized,” Peter gulps, and shrugs. “I don’t know. I kind of realized that I just want to keep going places with you, and keep solving mysteries with you, even if it means digging through cat poop with chopsticks in the middle of an alleyway. But even just hanging around with you. I mean I knew that already, you’re my best friend. But it just... felt right. It felt like I finally knew where I belonged, and it didn’t matter where it was, as long as it was next to you.”

Peter forces himself to stop pulling at the string, which is now bunching up a bit of that blanket. 

“Anyway. I don’t know what a crush is supposed to feel like. I have nothing to compare it to. But it felt like that’s what it was in Bellevue. So I had some mini-crises between the investigation.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal. “It was… a lot to deal with all at once.”

Sam still doesn’t say anything but Peter doesn’t have the guts to look up yet. So he keeps going. 

“I’m still ace, I decided. But I think that’s what a crush feels like. For me anyway. I get why people hate them. It’s stressful and unpleasant but kind of nice at the same time.”

Peter’s run out of things to say, much to his dismay. He goes quiet and he’s submerged into silence. It’s strange. It’s the quietest he’s ever heard Sam, even when they’re in comfortable silence. It’s the only thing that makes him look up. 

Sam’s not looking at him when he does. He’s picking at his own thread in the comforter. As he watches him, it vaguely processes in the back of his mind that they have habits of mirroring each other. The biggest thing is that Sam doesn’t look uncomfortable, which feels like it should be a weight off Peter’s tense shoulders, but it’s not. He just wants Sam to say something. 

Sam has his thinking face on. Peter loves his thinking face, but this one is a little different. He thinks, if he tilts his head a little more, that there’s a faint smile on Sam’s lips. Which feels like a very good sign. He sits there watching him in silence. Waiting for him to say something. 

“Do you remember that time we met with that stylist in the early days of Netflix press prep?”

The topic throws Peter for a loop. “Uh, yeah? What was their name? Jesse?”

“Yeah. Remember Jesse had us trying on media styles like we were in the most expensive thrift shop to ever exist? And that who we are as people is perceived through fashion and only fashion?”

Peter nods but Sam doesn’t see it. 

“Remember when your hair had kind of grown out and it kept getting in your eyes so they put it up in a little coiffe thing, and one of our first real outings, they were trying to convince you to wear your contacts?”

Sam paused like he was supposed to respond, even though they weren’t really questions. “Yeah, I wasn’t really a fan. I’m used to the glasses.”

“I was.” Sam twirls the loose thread between his fingers. “When you walked out like that my heart literally stopped. I had no idea what to do with myself. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Our whole media team was fawning over you and saying how great you looked and I could tell you hated it but they were right. You looked so good and so pretty and so fucking hot and -“

Peter suddenly feels a lump in his throat. Sam has had one forming since the moment he started his story. 

“I mean I’ve seen you without your glasses before, obviously. I think you look great every single day.” Sam starts fidgeting with his fingers. “But that moment, I knew I was a goner. I mean I knew before that too but I was trying to shove that down for... a while.”

Sam laces his fingers together and pushes the palms of his hands up toward his face like he’s inspecting them. 

“It wasn’t Gabi I was talking about. She’s not the best friend I accidentally fell for.”

“I-“ Peter’s at a loss. That was not the reaction he was anticipating. Like at all. He's quiet for a moment, thinking too much as always. Then he notes the uptick in stress signs in Sam as the seconds tick by without him saying something. He feels the tension in his own shoulders the same as he can feel Sam’s jaw shifting in nervousness. When he gulps he can still feel the lump in his throat. That’s when he decides that they both need a break. He couldn’t see them getting much of anywhere when they’re both this stressed out anyway. Plus, one thing stuck out in his head from Sam’s speech, and Peter hates how cliché it is but he’s going to embrace it anyway. 

“You think I’m hot?”

He can see Sam’s eyes close as he whispers, “Oh my god.”

Peter grins. “But only when I take off my glasses and put my hair up.”

“Peter oh my god.”

“We’re literally in an early 2000s chick flick.”

“Peter-”

“Oh my god is that why you like early 2000s chick flicks? Or wait, it would be vice versa right?”

“Peter for the love of God please shut the fuck up.”

Sam vaults himself in between them and takes Peter’s face in his hands. Peter sucks in a surprised breath when Sam pauses with their lips an inch apart, effectively shutting him up. Sam stands above him, hunched over slightly, tipping his head up, and it makes Peter feel a lot of things he’s never felt before and he doesn’t know how to take it. 

For some reason, the action brings to mind one singular thought of an early 2000s movie. 

“Hitch,” he breathes. 

Sam’s eyes are almost closed, looking at him this close. He huffs a laugh at the thought. “I go 90-”

Peter goes 10. He goes 10 before Sam can finish the word ninety. He goes 10 without the desire to overthink it like he has for the past year. He goes 10, and it greets him with lips as soft as he’d imagined them, and the evaporation of all of his stress released from his body. He goes 10 and he thinks it might be the best decision he’s made in his 19 years of life. 

It’s the softest kiss Peter’s ever encountered in his life (not that he’s encountered many), and it fills him with a sense of peace and happiness. Sam makes his brain stop overthinking all the time and makes him feel, almost giddy. And he’s about 87% sure that this is what liking someone is supposed to feel like. And he’s 100% sure that he wants Sam, whose fingers slide along his cheek, taking it in as slowly as he is, to kiss him again even though they haven’t pulled away yet. 

When they do, they don’t go far. Sam keeps his eyes closed, and with a huff of a laugh he puts his forehead to Peter’s. 

“I’ve kind of had a thing for you for two years.”

Peter watches him, traces his finger down his jaw and watches him shiver involuntarily. “I think that’s the longest you’ve ever held a secret.”

Sam’s eyes flicker open, and Peter watches Sam’s smile mirror his own. “Whatever.” And he kisses him again, a little more confident, a little more sure, and Peter’s not sure how much better it can get, but he can’t wait to find out. 

“So,” Sam says, pulling away a little more this time. “On a scale of 1-10, who’s the better kisser me or Dylan.”

Peter makes an indignant noise and yanks him down onto the bed beside him. Sam laughs as he falls awkwardly, partially on top of Peter’s still crossed leg. 

“Literally,” Peter pulls his leg out to sit on his feet, and puts a hand on either side of Sam so that he’s hovering above him. “Shut the fuck up.”

For the first time ever, Sam does as he’s told and kisses Peter again when he leans down. Something he could very much get used to. 

“And for the record,” he says when Peter’s situated himself so that they’re laying next to each other, playing with Sam’s fidgety fingers. “I thought you were beautiful when we were 13 and you still had those horrible giant glasses and just starting to hit puberty.”

“For _your_ record, I think you’re hot all the time.” Sam sees a smirk form on Peter’s face as he keeps his attention on his fingers. “But the hats? Those ones from the 24 stop? Your fearless journalism one?” He nods like that’s the end of the statement and Sam should already understand. “Yeah.”

And Sam does understand, and gives himself a mental reminder to find and wear that hat every day, starting as soon as he can find it back in Oceanside. He grins.

"Good to know."

**Author's Note:**

> apparently I still have emotions about the dick-drawing show. 
> 
> Tyler Alverez is fricking beautiful i had to do it
> 
> also if anyone hasn't seen it, this is the vine he's doing and I love it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBo26500o7U
> 
> I take prompts on tumblr if anyone has any ideas! @prexenatious


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